After 4 days of the soloists, the orchestra hits town, with the start of the doubles event.
Straight into the semi-finals, none of that round robin nonsense for these guys, they are the worker bees of the WTA Tour.
The line up ...
Cara Black/ Rennae Stubbs- Zi Yan/ Jie Zheng
Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur-Francesca Schiavone/ Kveta Peschke
Lots of history between some of these, Raymond and Stubbs won 25 tournaments together, before splitting up when their off court relationship broke down. Think the scars have healed, as they have socialised together this week.
These two have shown amazing longevity on tour, between them they have won114 titles and earned $11m in prize money. Even most tennis fans would struggle to recognize the 35 yo Stubbs in an elevator. she has hardly played singles in a decade, yet shows no sign of letting up and with $4m in career earnings, why should she.
Likewise Lisa Raymond, a mere youngster at 33 yo, she has collected a double handful of titles this year alone and her career total of 59, is exactly the same as the singles total of Serena and Venus Williams combined.
Her new playing partner, Samantha Stosur, is just 22 yo and could conceivably play for another decade or even longer. With earnings already approaching $2m, could she become the first to earn $20m from doubles ? It's possible.
The youthful chinese pairing of Yan and Zheng, their combined age is only 9 years greater than Stubbs (sorry Rennae), have really come to the fore this season. Collecting the Australian Open and Wimbledon championships, defeating Black and Stubbs at the semi final stage in the latter.
They have played together for 5-6 years since their mid-late teens and something seems to have suddenly clicked.
Their opener should be a cracker and is too close to call, if pushed, the greater experience of Stubbs and Black should see them through. She is certainly very motivated, the pairing having finished runners up here the past two years. The veteran Aussie arrived in Madrid on Monday and is relaxed and prepared, both mentally and physically.
Raymond and Stubbs should win through the other semi, after a quiet mid season they recently returned to form, winning in Stuttgart and Zurich, where Peschke and Schiavone retired. The european pairing arrive in seemingly the worse shape of the four and look destined to struggle.
I would be delighted to see Stubbs and Black win, but feel Raymond and Stosur will cement their #1 ranking and retain the title.
4 points Raymond and Stosur outright 2.0 + , very few bookmakers have priced up the event so far, but many will do so during Saturday morning. I will try to update the top price once they are all available.
Good Luck.
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